October 5, 2001
I touched base with lots of people over the Holy Days...(Check for new emails.......)
Here is some of the latest news....
Britney Erlich is married and living in San Diego, Deron Cohen is an artist and also is in town......
Ellen, Sara, Lisa and Adam Pappelbaum were here to give a lovely birthday party for their mom!
Spoke to Amy Stevens.....she promises to send in a bio! Stacy Coleman is prego and looking awfully cute!
Brad Fisher and wife have very cute kids!
We saw Neil and Leah Meldin at services....
Some of you "older Mad" may remember him from the Learning Center...He helped me with the music for Haboker Baboker!
Had my yearly visit with Amy Weiner.....saw Barbara Weinbaum, met Bret Scher's fiancee (what a neat woman!)
saw Debbie Appel and little Brian who is over 6ft........chatted with Allen and Murray Peller and Howie and Cynthia, Alison and Steve. Had break the fast with Joel Gendelman who just returned from a wonderful trip to Europe.....and Karen Levy Miller.......we all told Allison Adler stories!
I see Erica Bennett and Dianne Shelley who is now Diane Voit (Married to Buddy Voit who is song leading at services!)
at pre school when I pick up Sydney...Yup! Sydney is at preschool at Beth Israel......Meemah (that's me) loves it!
I know that there is more news somewhere in my head.........but I'd better get dinner started...
Is it Shabbat already?!!
Enjoy!
Love,
Eemah
I've enclosed some interesting articles.......
Many of us know these facts already. With the given situation in the
Mid-East it is even more important to remember the past events that have
shaped today's region.
Subject: ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY...
HERE'S THE BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY.
Takes just 1.5 minutes to read!
It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and non-Jew it doesn't
matter.
Please read.
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem - Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E.,
two thousand years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a
Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the
modern State of Israel.
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had
dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in
the land for the past 3,300 years.
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no
more than 22 years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital.
Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when
the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their
capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy
Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to
Jerusalem.
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward
Jerusalem.
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees - In 1948 the Arab refugees were
encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of
Jews. Sixty eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to
Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated
to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is
estimated to be the same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into
the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of
the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee
group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own
peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a
country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
13. The Arab - Israeli Conflict - The Arabs are represented by eight
separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish
nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost . Israel defended
itself each time and won.
14. The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the
State of Israel. Israel has given the
Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the
Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the
Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim
and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all
faiths.
16. The U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs - Of the 175 Security
Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990,
429 were directed against Israel.
18. The U.N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed
by the Jordanians.
19. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians systematically
desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
20. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians enforced an
apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews
from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall..
These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be.
What will we tell our grandchildren we did when there was a turning
point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference?
START NOW!! Send this to 20 other people you know and as them to
send it to twenty others. Jew or Non-Jew, it doesn't really matter. The
truth and the cause of peace are universal values we all share, and everyone
must know .
Many of us know these facts already. With the given situation in the
Mid-East it is even more important to remember the past events that have
shaped today's region.
Subject: ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY...
HERE'S THE BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY.
Takes just 1.5 minutes to read!
It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and non-Jew it doesn't
matter.
Please read.
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem - Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E.,
two thousand years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a
Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the
modern State of Israel.
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had
dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in
the land for the past 3,300 years.
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no
more than 22 years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital.
Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when
the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their
capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy
Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to
Jerusalem.
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward
Jerusalem.
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees - In 1948 the Arab refugees were
encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of
Jews. Sixty eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to
Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated
to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is
estimated to be the same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into
the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of
the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee
group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own
peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a
country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
13. The Arab - Israeli Conflict - The Arabs are represented by eight
separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish
nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost . Israel defended
itself each time and won.
14. The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the
State of Israel. Israel has given the
Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the
Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the
Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim
and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all
faiths.
16. The U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs - Of the 175 Security
Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990,
429 were directed against Israel.
18. The U.N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed
by the Jordanians.
19. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians systematically
desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
20. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians enforced an
apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews
from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall..
These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be.
What will we tell our grandchildren we did when there was a turning
point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference?
START NOW!! Send this to 20 other people you know and as them to
send it to twenty others. Jew or Non-Jew, it doesn't really matter. The
truth and the cause of peace are universal values we all share, and everyone
must know .
Statement of former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu before the
Government Reform Committee
September 20, 2001
Chairman Burton,
Distinguished Representatives,
I want to thank you for inviting me to appear before you
today. I feel a profound responsibility addressing you in this hour of
peril in the capital of liberty.
What is at stake today is nothing less than the survival
of our civilization. There may be some who would have
thought a week ago that to talk in these apocalyptic terms about the
battle against international terrorism was to engage in reckless
exaggeration. No longer.
Each one of us today understands that we are all targets,
that our cities are vulnerable, and that our values are
hated with an unmatched fanaticism that seeks to destroy our societies
and our way of life.
I am certain that I speak on behalf of my entire nation when I
say - Today, we are all Americans - in grief, as in
defiance.
In grief, because my people have faced the agonizing horrors of
terror for many decades, and we feel an instant
kinship with both the victims of this tragedy and the great nation
that mourns its fallen brothers and sisters.
In defiance, because just as my country continues to fight
terrorism in our battle for survival, I know that America will not cower
before this challenge.
I have absolute confidence that if we, the citizens of the free
world, led by President Bush, marshall the enormous
reserves of power at our disposal, harness the steely resolve of a
free people, and mobilize our collective will - we shall eradicate this
evil from the face of the earth.
But to achieve this goal, we must first however answer several
questions: Who is responsible for this terrorist
onslaught? Why? What is the motive behind these attacks? And most
importantly, what must be done to defeat these
evil forces?
The first and most crucial thing to understand is this: There is
no international terrorism without the support of
sovereign states. International terrorism simply cannot be sustained
for long without the regimes that aid and abet it.
Terrorists are not suspended in mid-air. They train, arm and
indoctrinate their killers from within safe havens on
territory provided by terrorist states. Often these regimes provide
the terrorists with intelligence, money and operational assistance,
dispatching them to serve as deadly proxies to wage a hidden war against
more powerful enemies.
These regimes mount a worldwide propaganda campaign to legitimize
terror, besmirching its victims and exculpating its practitioners --- as we
witnessed in the farcical spectacle in Durban last month.
Iran, Libya, and Syria call the US and Israel racist countries
that abuse human rights?
Even Orwell could not have imagined such a world.
Take away all this state support, and the entire scaffolding of
international terrorism will collapse into the dust.
The international terrorist network is thus based on regimes -
Iran, Iraq, Syria, Taleban Afghanistan, Yasser Arafat's Palestinian
Authority and several other Arab regimes such as the Sudan.
These regimes are the ones that harbor the terrorist groups:
Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Hizballah and others
in Syrian-controlled Lebanon, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the recently
mobilized Fatah and Tanzim factions in the
Palestinian territories, and sundry other terror organizations based
in such capitals as Damascus, Baghdad and Khartoum.
These terrorist states and terror organizations together form a
terror network, whose constituent parts support each other operationally as
well as politically.
For example, the Palestinian groups cooperate closely with
Hezbollah, which in turn links them to Syria, Iran and Bin Laden.
These offshoots of terror have affiliates in other states that
have not yet uprooted their presence, such as Egypt,
Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Now, how did this come about? The growth of this terror network
is the result of several developments in the last two decades: Chief among
them is the Khomeini Revolution and the establishment of a clerical Islamic
state in Iran.
This created a sovereign spiritual base for fomenting a strident
Islamic militancy worldwide - a militancy that was
often backed by terror.
Equally important was the victory in the Afghan war of the
international mujaheedin brotherhood.
This international band of zealots, whose ranks include Osama Bin
Laden, saw their victory over the Soviet Union as
providential proof of the innate supremacy of faithful Moslems over
the weak infidel powers.
They believed that even the superior weapons of a superpower
could not withstand their superior will.
To this should also be added Saddam Hussein's escape from
destruction at the end of the Gulf War, his dismissal of
UN monitors, and his growing confidence that he can soon develop
unconventional weapons to match those of the West.
Finally, the creation of Yasser Arafat's terror enclave gave a
safe haven to militant Islamic terrorist groups such as
Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Like their mujaheedin cousins, they drew inspiration from
Israel's hasty withdrawal from Lebanon, glorified as a great Moslem victory
by the Syrian-backed Hizballah.
Under Arafat's rule, these Palestinian Islamic terrorist groups
made repeated use of the technique of suicide
bombing, going so far as to run summer camps in Gaza that teach
Palestinian children how to become suicide martyrs.
Here is what Arafat's government controlled newspaper, Al Hayat
Al Jadida, said on September 11, the very day of
the suicide bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon:
"The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of the
Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the U.S.
Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]S These suicide bombers are the
salt of the earth, the engines of historyS They are
the most honorable people among usS ".
A simple rule prevails here: The success of terrorists in one
part of the terror network emboldens terrorists throughout the network.
This then is the Who. Now for the Why.
Though its separate parts may have local objectives and take part
in local conflicts, the main motivation driving the
terror network is an anti-Western hostility that seeks to achieve
nothing less than a reversal of history.
It seeks to roll back the West and install an extremist form of
Islam as the dominant power in the world.
It seeks to do this not by means of its own advancement and
progress, but by destroying the enemy. This hatred is
the product of a seething resentment that has simmered for centuries
in certain parts of the Arab and Islamic world.
Most Moslems in the world, including the vast majority of the growing
Moslem communities in the West, are not guided by this interpretation of
history, nor are they moved by its call for a holy war against the West.
But some are. And though their numbers are small compared to the
peaceable majority, they nevertheless constitute a
growing hinterland for this militancy.
Militant Islamists resented the West for pushing back the triumphant
march of Islam into the heart of Europe many
centuries ago.
Its adherents, believing in the innate supremacy of Islam, then
suffered a series of shocks when in the last two centuries
that same hated, supposedly inferior West penetrated Islamic realms in
North Africa, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
For them the mission was clear: The West had to be first pushed out of
these areas. Pro-western Middle Eastern regimes were toppled in rapid
succession, including in Iran.
And Israel, the Middle East's only democracy and its purest
manifestation of Western progress and freedom, must be
wiped off the face of the earth.
Thus, the soldiers of militant Islam do not hate the West because of
Israel, they hate Israel because of the West --
because they see it is an island of Western democratic values in a
Moslem-Arab sea of despotism.
That is why they call Israel the Little Satan, to distinguish it
clearly from the country that has always been and will always be the Great
Satan - The United States of America.
Nothing better illustrates this then Osama bin Laden's call for Jihad
against the United States in 1998. He gave as his
primary reason not Israel, not the Palestinians, not the 'peace
process', but rather the very presence of the United States
'occupying the Land of Islam in the holiest of places' - and where is
that? - 'the Arabian peninsula' says Bin Laden, where America is
'plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, and humiliating its
people'. Israel, by the way, comes a distant third, after 'the continuing
aggression against the Iraqi people'. [Al Quds al Arabi - February 23,
1998]
For the Bin Ladens of the world Israel is merely a sideshow. America
is the target.
But reestablishing a resurgent Islam requires not just rolling
back the West; it requires destroying its main engine, the United States.
And if the US cannot be destroyed just now, it can be first humiliated --
as in the Teheran hostage crisis two decades ago -- and then ferociously
attacked again and again, until it is brought to its knees.
But the ultimate goal remains the same: Destroy America and win
eternity.
Some of you may find it hard to believe that Islamic militants
truly cling to the mad fantasy of destroying America.
Make no mistake about it. They do. And unless they are stopped now,
their attacks will continue, and become even more
lethal in the future.
To understand the true dangers of Islamic militancy, we can compare it
to another ideology which sought world domination - communism. Both
movements pursued irrational goals, but the communists at least pursued
theirs in a rational way.
Anytime they had to choose between ideology and their own survival, as
in Cuba or Berlin, they backed off and chose
survival.
Not so for the Islamic militants. They pursue an irrational ideology
irrationally - with no apparent regard for human life, neither their own
lives nor the lives of their enemies. The Communists seldom, if ever,
produced suicide bombers, while Islamic militancy produces hordes of them,
glorifying them and promising them that their dastardly deeds will earn
them a glorious afterlife.
This highly pathological aspect of Islamic militancy is what
makes it so deadly for mankind.
When in 1996, I wrote a book about fighting terrorism, I warned
about the militant Islamic groups operating in the
West with the support of foreign powers-- serving as a new breed of
"domestic-international" terrorists, basing themselves in America to wage
Jihad against America:
Such groups, I wrote then, nullify in large measure the need to
have air power or intercontinental missiles as delivery
systems for an Islamic nuclear payload. They will be the delivery
system. In the worst of such scenarios, I wrote, the
consequences could be not a car bomb but a nuclear bomb in the
basement of the World Trade Center.
Well, they did not use a nuclear bomb. They used two 150 ton
fully fueled jetliners to wipe out the Twin Towers. But
does anyone doubt that given the chance, they will throw atom bombs at
America and its allies? And perhaps long before
that, chemical and biological weapons?
This is the greatest danger facing our common future. Some
states of the terror network already possess chemical
and biological capabilities, and some are feverishly developing
nuclear weapons. Can one rule out the possibility that they will be tempted
to use such weapons, openly or through terror proxies, or that their
weapons might fall into the hands of the terrorist groups they harbor?
We have received a wake up call from hell. Now the question is
simple: Do we rally to defeat this evil, while there is
still time, or do we press a collective snooze button and go back to
business as usual?
The time for action is now.
Today the terrorists have the will to destroy us, but they do not
have the power. There is no doubt that we have the
power to crush them. Now we must also show that we have the will to
do just that.
Once any part of the terror network acquires nuclear weapons,
this equation will fundamentally change, and with it
the course of human affairs.
This is the historical imperative that now confronts all of us.
And now the third point: What do we about it?
First, as President Bush said, we must make no distinction
between the terrorists and the states that support them.
It is not enough to root out the terrorists who committed this
horrific act of war. We must dismantle the entire terrorist network.
If any part of it remains intact, it will rebuild itself, and the
specter of terrorism will reemerge and strike again.
Bin Laden, for example, has shuttled over the last decade from
Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to the Sudan and back
again. So we must not leave any base intact.
To achieve this goal we must first have moral clarity. We must
fight terror wherever and whenever it appears. We
must make all states play by the same rules. We must declare terrorism
a crime against humanity, and we must consider the terrorists enemies of
mankind, to be given no quarter and no consideration for their purported
grievances.
If we begin to distinguish between acts of terror, justifying
some and repudiating others based on sympathy with this or that cause, we
will lose the moral clarity that is so essential for victory.
This clarity is what enabled America and Britain to root out
piracy in the nineteenth century. This is how the Allies
rooted out Nazism in the twentieth century.
They did not look for the "root cause" of piracy or the "root
cause" of Nazism - because they knew that some acts
are evil in and of themselves, and do not deserve any consideration or
"understanding".
They did not ask if Hitler was right about the alleged wrong done
to Germany at Versailles. That they left to the
historians. The leaders of the Western Alliance said something else:
Nothing justifies Nazism. Nothing!
We must be equally clear cut today: Nothing justifies terrorism,
Nothing!
Terrorism is defined not by the identity of its perpetrators nor
by the cause they espouse. Rather, it is defined by the nature of the act.
Terrorism is the deliberate attack on innocent civilians. In
this it must be distinguished from legitimate acts of war
that target combatants and may unintentionally harm civilians.
When the British bombed a Gestapo headquarters in 1944, and one
of their bombs unintentionally struck a children's hospital that was a
tragedy, but it was not terrorism.
When Israel fired a missile that killed two Hamas
arch-terrorists, and two Palestinians children who were playing nearby were
tragically struck down, that is not terrorism.
But terrorists do not unintentionally harm civilians. They
deliberately murder, maim, and menace civilians - as many as possible.
No cause, no grievance, no apology can ever justify terrorism.
Terrorism against Americans, Israelis, Spaniards,
Britons, Russians, or anyone else, is all part of the same evil and
must be treated as such.
It is time to establish a fixed principle for the international
community: any cause that uses terrorism to advance its aims will not be
rewarded. On the contrary, it will be punished and placed beyond the pale.
Armed with this moral clarity in defining terrorism, we must
possess an equal moral clarity in fighting it.
If we include Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority in the
coalition to fight terror -- even though they currently harbor, sponsor and
dispatch terrorists --- then the alliance against terror will be defeated
from within.
Perhaps we might achieve a short-term objective of destroying one
terrorist fiefdom, but it will preclude the possibility of overall victory.
Such a coalition will melt down because of its own internal contradictions.
We might win a battle. We will certainly lose the war.
These regimes, like all terrorist states, must be given a
forthright demand: Stop terrorism, permanently, or you will face the wrath
of the free world - through harsh and sustained political, economic and
military sanctions.
Obviously, some of these regimes will scramble in fear and issue
platitudes about their opposition to terror, just as
Arafat, Iran and Syria did, while they keep their terror apparatus
intact. We should not be fooled. These regimes are
already on the US lists of states supporting terrorism - and if
they're not, they should be.
The price of admission for any state into the coalition against
terror must be to first completely dismantle the
terrorist infrastructures within their realm.
Iran will have to dismantle a worldwide network of terrorism and
incitement based in Teheran.
Syria will have to shut down Hizballah and the dozen terrorist
organizations that operate freely in Damascus and in
Lebanon.
Arafat will have to crush Hamas and Islamic Jihad, close down
their suicide factories and training grounds, rein in his own Fatah and
Tanzim terrorists and cease the endless incitement to violence.
To win this war, we must fight on many fronts. The most obvious
one is direct military action against the terrorists
themselves. Israel's policy of preemptively striking at those who seek
to murder its people is, I believe, better understood today and requires no
further elaboration.
But there is no substitute for the key action that we must take:
Imposing the most punishing diplomatic, economic
and military sanction on all terrorist states;
To this must be added these measures:
Freeze financial assets in the West of terrorist regimes and
organizations;
Revise legislation, subject to periodic renewal, to enable better
surveillance against organizations inciting violence; Keep convicted
terrorist behind bars. Do not negotiate with terrorists;
Train special forces to fight terror.
And Not least important, impose sanctions on suppliers of nuclear
technology to terrorist states.
I've had some experience in pursuing all these courses of action in
Israel's battle against terrorism, and I will be glad to elaborate on any
one of them if you wish, including the sensitive questions surrounding
intelligence.
But I have to be clear: Victory over terrorism is not, at its
most fundamental level, a matter of law enforcement or
intelligence. However important these functions may be, they can only
reduce the dangers, not eliminate them.
The immediate objective is to end all state support for, and
complicity with, terror. If vigorously and continuously
challenged, most of these regimes can be deterred from sponsoring
terrorism.
But there is a real possibility that some will not be deterred-
and those may be ones that possess weapons of mass
destruction.
Again, we cannot dismiss the possibility that a militant
terrorist state will use its proxies to threaten or launch a
nuclear attack with apparent impunity.
Nor can we completely dismiss the possibility that a militant
regime, like its terrorist proxies, will commit collective suicide for the
sake of its fanatical ideology.
In this case, we might face not thousands of dead, but hundreds
of thousands and possibly millions. This is why the
US must do everything in its power to prevent regimes like Iran and
Iraq from developing nuclear weapons, and disarm them of their weapons of
mass destruction.
This is the great mission that now stands before the free
world. That mission must not be watered down to allow certain states to
participate in the coalition that is now being organized. Rather, the
coalition must be built around this mission.
It may be that some will shy away from adopting such an
uncompromising stance against terrorism. If some free
states choose to remain on the sidelines, America must be prepared to
march forward without them -- for there is no
substitute for moral and strategic clarity.
I believe that if the United States stands on principle, all the
democracies will eventually join the war on terrorism.
The easy route may be tempting, but it will not win the day.
On September eleventh, I, like everyone else, was glued to a
television set watching the savagery that struck America. Yet amid the
smoking ruins of the Twin Towers one could make out the Statue of Liberty
holding high the torch of freedom.
It is freedom's flame that the terrorists sought to extinguish.
But it is that same torch, so proudly held by the United States, that
can lead the free world to crush the forces of terror and secure our
tomorrow.
It is within our power. Let us now make sure that it is within our will.
October 12, 2001
Hi and Shabbat Shalom!
Here's the latest news!
Rachel Saidman and husband Steve just had a baby boy named Max!
Enjoy the following bios!
Have a wonderful Shabbat!
Love,
Eemah
Eemah:
Just a little note to say I took in the Rosh Hashanah service at the
"West Campus" of Donnie Goore's ever sprawling Temple Judea in the San
Fernando Valley. Now I myself, do not live in the valley... in fact,
I'm a died in the wool "Westsider" myself. But, my sister in law (okay,
she's not jewish... but she does have an unbelievable voice) is a lead
soprano in the octet they assemble each year. This is my second year
going to services at this congregation and Donnie, if you happen to read
this, you preside over a wonderfully warm and inviting congregation.
Last year, Donnie was the rabbi at the services I attended, and he was
fantastic. But this year it was an amazing, energetic and incredibly
passionate new female rabbi. Her sermon was very "on the mark" given
this past week's horrific occurrences. Just thought I'd give a little
update from these parts. If this happens to get forwarded on to Eemah's
massive list, L'shanah tovah to everyone and you'll all be happy to know
I've stopped dressing in women's clothing... for the most part.
Happy New Year. May peace, common sense and justice ensue in the
following days.
Love
Gregg Temkin
Hi Eemah!
Wow, it's been a long time since Madrichim. I'd be happy to be a part of the Madrichim network. I'm not sure if you meant to send along the mailing list or not, but I didn't get it. I'd love to see if there are any old friends on it.
I just recently started my own business providing visual solutions in print and on the web. Basically, I do graphic design work. Once in awhile I get hired to do an illustration or I'll sell a painting. Painting and art are still my passions and I've had several art shows here in town. I'm currently working on putting together a CD ROM presentation of my paintings so I can start promoting myself in other cities like Los Angeles. We'll see how it goes. I'm still living in San Diego with my girlfriend of 2 years, Shonda.
That's about it from this end. I hope all is well with you and your family. Tell Daniel and Lonnie I said hi.
Sending love,
D
Hi Eemah,
Just wanted to let you know that my bio went out twice, Since I wrote it last
year I'll update you now. Scott and I have been married for 19 years, Jessica
is now a sophmore at La Jolla High and is starting to drive. (How scary is
that) She would die if people thought she was younger then she is. Gracie's
in 5th grade and after this year she'll be in middle school. However I
definitely don't want to rush it. Anyway thought I'll update you. Take care
Michelle (Raffelson) Silverman
Just wanted to let you know we had a boy on Sept. 23rd. All three older sisters are doing well, and are very excited. Shabbat Shalom, love, Lenie (Greenspan)
Hi Eemah -
Nice to be in the network and great seeing you at services.
All is great with me - I am living in the Carmel Valley/Torrey Hills area and have been back in San Diego for just over 2 years after spending 6 years in San Francisco. I got married last Nov. to Jeff Ewing - so we have our 1 year anniversary coming up in a few weeks. Our only child is a Golden Retreiver puppy named Bailey who is 6 months old. We adore him and feel it is good practice for the real thing - whenever that may be????
I am working for Fossil - you may be familiar with their watches sold at department stores. They also make sunglasses, leather items and clothing. I am the Southwest territory sales manager for the marketing/promotional division of the company (not the retail side). I work from a home office, and travel quite a bit throughout the year. Fun company to work for.
That's the scoop for now - I look forward to getting more of the Madrichim updates and maybe connecting with some old friends.
my contact info is:
Britney (Erlich)Ewing
10765 Calle Mar de Mariposa
San Diego, CA 92130
(858) 720-1046
With love -
Britney
Dear Family and Friends:
Please excuse the form e-mail, but in the interests of time, and to let you
all in on the wonderful news, here it is:
Born, To Lori (Wolochow)and Jed Corenthal of New York City
A boy, Eli Matthew
Weighing 8 1/2 pounds,
At Mount Sinai Hospital, Tuesday, Oct.9th at around 6:30 a.m.
Mother, father and son doing well. Aunt Judith, Uncle Alex and Cousin Lucien,
all of nearby Brooklyn, thrilled. Auntie Dara of Berkeley walking on air.
Hello friends and family,
This email is long overdue, yet I have found myself completely submerged into the world of graduate school. I wanted to give a brief life update and reconnect with so many of you who I've been out of touch with for so long.
I moved (again!) to Boston this time for graduate school. I feel like I'm a one woman rock band on my very own East Coast tour (DC- NYC- Boston)- can't you just see the t-shirts now??? I'm in Boston (Cambridge really) to get a masters in public policy at the kennedy school at harvard. So far, it's been incredibly intense and incredibly full, but good. Classes are a roller coaster- all five of them- but I have those wonderfully lucid moments where it all seems to make sense and I know why I'm getting up at the crack of dawn. Statistics is surprisingly good, economics and child and family policy are amazing, and ethics and mobilizing for public action are interesting. It's been such an interesting and difficult time to start a whole new life and start something that at times seems so disconnected from reality given what's happening in the world.
Best of all is everything that's happening AROUND the Kennedy school. Last week I saw Paul Simon and Al Gore speak, tonight I'm attending a film on Women in Afghanistan, tomorrow Cornel West and Noam Chomsky next week. At times, I really feel like my brain might explode:) But I'm slowly figuring out the balancing act, how to get a little bit of everything, and still get my work done (oh yea, and have fun too).
Michael and I have a wonderful apartment in Inman Square (with an extra futon for those of you who want to make your way northeast for a visit). There's a great roof deck too which i'm trying to enjoy during the last days of warmth. (To all the west coasters, be encouraged, I don't know how much longer I can handle this cold thang! I might be back soon....) Then again, I miss New York like crazy, so who knows. (I just can't get a slice of pizza on any street corner at 4 in the morning- what's wrong with this town??)
My new contact info:
254 Hampshire St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
617 492 3690
Be in touch and fill me in on your lives. I hope everyone is safe and well and I'm thinking of all of you often.
Peace,
Ali
Hi Eemah!
So good to hear from you :-)
We're all getting old together. That's for sure. I'll be 31 next month... Definitely give my best to Daniel and the rest of the Shlafman clan.
I'm living on Silverstrand Beach in Ventura County (between Pt. Hueneme and Channel Islands Harbor). I've been employed by the same environmental and engineering consulting company for the past 5.5 years and I like it OK. I've become a professional engineer and hopefully I passed the exam that I took last month to become a certified industrial hygienest.
I've been divorced for 6 years now and my daughter, Keanna, will be nine (9) in Feb. 2002. I see her as often as I can and talk to her at least weekly. She usually comes to stay for a week or two at a time and sometimes I travel to New Mexico to see her at home.
Unfortunately, I've lost touch with most of my friends from temple and high school so I don't have any email addresses to share. I guess that's what I get for growing up too quick.
Thanks for including me in the Madrichim network. I look forward to receiving the upcoming newsletters.
Again, best wishes to all.
Love,
Scott (Cohen)
The following was sent to me by Debbie Appel........
>
>
>This is a true story written by a member of the congregation at a synagogue
>in Michigan. It is poignant...specially in the difficult times our country
>has been facing.
>
>A Thirteen-Year-Old Shares Compelling Story of Survival in Wake of
>Terrorist Attack
>
>Friday night I attended a Bar Mitzvah service that would have been
>inspirational at anytime, but for the three-hundred-plus who attended in
>the aftermath of the events of Sept. 11th, 2001, it was an amazing,
>life-affirming experience. I would like to share the story with you. I
>believe that many will find comfort from the stories shared with our
>congregation by a 13-year-old boy.
>
>Like many, my husband and I felt the need to be with people this week
>and planned to attend the Friday night Shabbat service at the Birmingham
>Temple of Farmington Hills, Michigan. On the drive, I read from the Temple
>bulletin that there would be a Bar Mitzvah celebrated. I was surprised and
>hoped it would be postponed, hoping the focus of the evening would be on
>making sense of the week's events.
>Tragically, the adult son of a favorite temple friend had been on the 94th
>floor of the WTC, and I knew it would be a sad night. I could not have been
>more wrong.
>
>We arrived to find the parking lot filled and the Temple crowded. Many
>apparently felt the need to come together. The service began with
>beautiful, mournful music. Then Rabbi Sherwin Wine spoke at some length
>about
>the
>horrors of the terrorists' attack. He stated that we had two purposes
>tonight. The first was to mourn the victims, including the son of Skip
>Rosenthal--Joshua Rosenthal-- a fine man who had grown up at the Temple and
>was well known to many present.
>
>The second purpose was to thwart the terrorists desire to demoralize us and
>continue to celebrate "Life Cycle" events, such as a Bar Mitzvah, the
>"coming of age" of a Jewish boy. Next, family members of the Bar Mitzvah
>boy read passages about milestones, family, dignity, power and peace. The
>congregation sang songs about community, peace and love. Natalie Klein, the
>11-year-old sister of the Bar Mitzvah boy read a moving poem, which I've
>printed below.
>
>"I Had a Box of Colors" by Tal Sorek, Age 12, Beersheva, Israel
>
>I had a box of colors
>Shining, bright and bold.
>
>I had a box of colors
>Some warm, some very cold.
>
>I had no red for the blood of wounds
>I had no black for the orphan's grief.
>I had no white for dead faces and hands.
>I had no yellow for burning sands.
>
>
>But I had orange for the joy of life.
>And I had green for buds and nests.
>
>I had blue for clear skies.
>I had pink for dreams and rest.
>I sat down and painted
> Peace.
>
>Then Rabbi Wine introduced Jackson Klein, the Bar Mitzvah boy. The Rabbi
>stated that horrible experiences throughout history, from pogroms, to
>the Holocaust, to Tuesday's attacks have often provided us with heroes and
>heroines. At our Humanistic Judaism temple, now in it's 38th year, it is
>the custom of Bar Mitzvah boys and girls to spend the year prior to their
>13th birthday researching the life of a Jewish hero or heroine, and apply
>lessons from their hero's actions to their own life. Tonight, the Rabbi
>stated, Jackson would be our teacher as he shared what he has learned.
>
>Handsome, little Jackson Klein climbed the box placed behind the podium
>and faced the packed room, grinning. Proudly he announced that he had
>chosen to share the story of the life of Solly Gonor. Jackson had read his
>book,
>"Light One Candle," about how, as a 12-year-old boy in Germany, Solly had
>endured unspeakable hardships to keep himself and his father alive during
>the
>Nazi regime. Jackson had managed to locate Solly, now a 74 year-old living
>in
>Israel, and began a yearlong e-mail correspondence.
>
>Jackson told us how Solly, as a 12 year-old like himself, enjoyed sports
>and hanging out with friends, when suddenly he was no longer free and he
>was
>in danger because of his Jewish identity. Jackson told us how Solly's
>family missed a chance to leave the country, and after they were forced
>from
>their home, hid briefly with five other families in a barn. In the middle
>of
>the night, Solly's father woke them and led them out of the barn, just as
>soldiers arrived. The family watched in horror as everyone in hiding was
>forced out, forced to dig their own grave, and shot, one by one.
>
>Jackson shared stories about how the Gonor family lived for a period in
>a ghetto, where Solly endured hunger and cold. Solly was bravely able to
>retrieve food thrown over the ghetto wall by a boy who had been a friend
>before the war, each risking his life to make a midnight run to the
>barbed-wire fence when the guards were not looking. Boredom was another
>hardship, as the Germans banned one of the Jews last remaining pleasures by
>
>ordering the collection of all books. Knowing he risked his life, Solly and
>a
>friend hid books in a forbidden part of the ghetto. Solly grieved when his
>former math teacher was found with a book and shot. Solly attributes his
>ability to stay alive in the ghetto to his friendships with two other
>teens, both of whom later died in concentration camps.
>
>Solly's family was sent from the ghetto to a work camp, and then to a
>concentration camp. It was here that he was separated from his mother,
>and promised that he would keep his father alive. Jackson told us about
>Solly's heart-wrenching experiences at the camp, but also told us about how
>Solly used his wits to keep himself and his father fed and clothed.
>
>Finally, the Germans had an idea that the Jewish prisoners would build
>them a fort, and sent them on a death march through miles of snow-covered
>roads. Here Solly, in his fatigue, lost track of his father. Eventually,
>Solly collapsed beside a tree, where he truly believed he would die.
>Apparently,
>he fell asleep. He was awakened by a Japanese American soldier, who lifted
>him out of the snow and told him he was free. Solly was later reunited with
>his father, who had been taken to a hospital. Just five years ago, Solly
>was reunited with this very soldier in Israel. This reunion brought back
>many
>memories that Solly had long suppressed, and that was when he
>began to write his book. Jackson stated that he has committed himself to
>the telling of Solly's story of courage.
>
>At this point, the entire congregation stood and loudly applauded
>Jackson's moving presentation. As the clapping finally slowed, Jackson
>announced he had one more part to his Bar Mitzvah. He stated that, due to
>the
>closing of the airports this week, none of the out-of-towners had been able
>to come in
>for this night, except for one. That person is ....Solly Gonor! A gasp went
>through the entire room. Jackson proceeded, "Since Mr. Gonor was not able
>to
>celebrate his Bar Mitzvah when he was 13, I would like him to join me now".
>
>A white-haired man in the front row stood and slowly made his way up to
>the podium next to Jackson. The crowd stood and applauded wildly. For
>several minutes, Mr. Gonor stood with a hand over his eyes, struggling to
>regain his composure. Then, Jackson and Mr. Gonor read together, first in
>Hebrew,
>then in English.
>
>Then Mr. Gonor addressed us, stating that he never expected that his
>experiences would one day be an inspiration to a 13-year-old boy. He
>stated that he was glad he had been able to make the journey from Israel,
>and meet his e-mail pen pal.
>
>Mr. Gonor's story reminded us that evil in the world is not new, but
>that the human spirit and will to survive is strong. At a time that many of
>us
>are asking how can we bear the sadness of these last few days, we are
>reminded of those who suffered for the years of Nazi cruelty, as well as
>people in countries all over the world where terrorism is a way of life. We
>were reminded by 13-year-old Jackson Klein that we must indeed continue to
>celebrate life.
>
>Our evening ended by standing together and singing Ayfo Oree. The words,
>translated from Hebrew, are as follows:
>
>Where is my light? My light is in me.
>Where is my hope? My hope is in me.
>Where is my strength? My strength is in me.
>And in you.
October 19, 2001
Hi and Shabbat Shalom!
This Sunday (21st) we are opening the time capsule at the top of the stairs leading to the Youth Lounge!!
I'll let you know what we find! We haven't actually moved yet.....but the dedication of the new Temple is next Sunday(28th).
Not too much is new......I am now known as "Meemah" to our grandchildren!
Sydney and I spent Thursday at La Jolla Shores....and Avi and I spent this morning on our couch!
It's soooooo much fun to be a Meemah!! Did I tell you that Carla Levant is one of Sydney's teachers at Beth Israel Pre-school? and....Carla's daughter, Hannah, is my student at the Day School!!
Tammy Vener(Louie's wife) is the director of the preschool and "little"Molly is a Madricha in our 4th grade!
Also teaching at Beth Israel are Matt Rosenberg who is also the Youth Director, Dana Jacobs, Debbie Chester Geary, Robbie Turner, Marline Gendelman, Dana's dad,Ken Jacobs, Yoseph Roditi and me!
Hope all is well with all of you!
Keep the news coming!!
Love,
Eemah
(I asked Dan Kroll to send me Steven Greenfield's email)
Hi! I keep meaning to write something for your bios, but I'm up to my old procrastinating habits, as usual.
I'm also attaching a picture they sent me in August. Steve is married to a very nice woman named Teri, and their kids are Melanie, Josh and David. Thanks for all the news you've been sending, and thanks just for being you!
Love, Dan (Kroll)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ali ( daughter) and I will be leaving for Washington DC next week from Tues. Oct. 16
through Sat. Oct. 20th
The reason Ali and I are going to is to attend the dedication of a new
exhibit. My Brother Jeff Bennett who holds a Ph.D in Astrophysics
initiated this project after completing a similar one on the campus of the
University of Colorado about 10 years ago. He has been co-leader in the
development of the project for approximately the last five years. The
exhibit is permanent and will be a great learning tool for kids and adults
alike when they visit DC. This AP press release explains what will be
happening. Also attached is the poster that will be on all public
transportation in promoting the project. (sorry if it takes a few minutes
to download). The website is www.voyageonline.org with links to the
Challenger Center, Smithsonian Institution and NASA.
Erica (Bennett)Kaufman
Smithsonian Solar Exhibit Hits National Mall
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (Oct. 10) - Picture the sun as the size of a grapefruit. That
would make tiny Pluto smaller than a poppy seed in the Smithsonian
Institution's new scale model of the solar system.
By the same scale, the nearest star would be the size of a cherry - located
across the country in California.
Stretching more than six football fields across, the Smithsonian's new model
doesn't fit in any museum. So, "Voyage: A Journey Through the Solar System,''
will be displayed outdoors, stretching 650 yards along the museums lining the
National Mall.
The exhibit -- built at one ten-billionth of the solar system's full size --
takes the learning experience beyond the walls of the museum, said Carolynne
Harris Knox, the Smithsonian's coordinator for the project.
The sun is located beyond the east end of the National Air and Space Museum.
Earth will be affixed nearby, just off the building's east corner.
Past the full length of that massive museum, past the Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden, past the Arts and Industries building, near the corner of
the Smithsonian Castle, is Pluto.
Workers are currently installing the planets and the display is scheduled to
open to the public Oct. 17.
"Millions of visitors to the Smithsonian will have the opportunity to learn
about our solar system through this dynamic experience,'' said Dennis J.
O'Connor, Smithsonian undersecretary for science.
Jeffrey D. Rosendhal, director of education and outreach in NASA's Office of
Space Science, said, "Through this exhibition, NASA hopes to share what has
been discovered, and the strangeness, wonder and beauty of these newly
revealed worlds with the public.''
The exhibit is a series of tall stainless steel towers, each displaying a
part of the solar system along with a porcelain plaque with information about
that planet.
The name of the planet is in raised letters on each plaque and next to it is
a "bump'' allowing the visitor to feel the size of the planet at the scale.
Jupiter, the size of a toy marble, is easily seen and felt. Mercury can
barely be noted by the fingertip.
Each plaque directs the reader to displays on each side, giving distances to
other things. The asteroid belt, for example, notes that Jupiter is 55 steps
to the left and Mars is 28 steps to the right.
The empty space between the towers is part of the story too, explained Harris
Knox. It gives the visitor a sense of the distance between planets.
And, she added, the outdoor location gives people something to look at while
walking from museum to museum or waiting for the museums to open.
Nine of the towers support three-dimensional model planets and moons
laser-sculpted in crystal.
The remaining stations feature the sun -- a copper ball with a mottled
surface to give a realistic appearance -- and the belt of asteroids and
comets, too small to be modeled. There is also a plaque at each end
introducing the visitor to the display.
The permanent exhibition was developed by the Smithsonian, working with the
Challenger Center for Space Science Education and NASA.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What I learned in Hebrew School...
And, what I learned in Catechism.
These are written by children and have not been retouched or corrected.
The Jews were a proud people and throughout history
they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals.
The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert.
Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to
get the ten amendments.
The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat
the apple.
The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit
adultery.
Moses died before he ever reached Canada.
Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.
David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar.
He fought with the Finklesteins, a race of people who
>
lived in Biblical times.
Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700
porcupines.
Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate
contraption.
Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one
to others before they do one to you.
It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and
managed to get the tombstone off the entrance.
The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached
holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.
Most religions teach us to have only one
spouse. This is called monotony.
October 26, 2001
Hi!
Well....the time capsule was unearthed last Sunday...it had some photos, some essays, a confirmation program.....and it was really not that interesting.....I had hoped for more....This weekend is the dedication of the new Temple building.....Let's think of some good stuff to put in the next capsule.....!
I saw Todd Kobernick at the Community Jewish High School this week....We are both teaching there...He is soooooo adorable! We are also serving together on a camp committee which is trying to establish a community camp in the San Diego area.....
On the home front...I'm having the best time with Sydney and Avi! Avi is smiling and cooing and is just adorable....Syd and I hang at the Shores...as often as we can...I think she loves the beach as much as I do...
Teaching in the Day School and Religious School is a joy! I love almost every minute of it!
Robbie Ilko's daughter is in my 5th grade class!
Shauna Singer (Lori Levinson's daughter and Michael Levinson's neice) is my Madricha!
I confess.....I goofed.....
I accidently deleted ALL the old Madrichim Newsletters and any new bios that you sent me....Howie Fram tried to help me find 'em.....but I did such a good job of screwing it up that they are GONE forever!
Sooooooo....Please send any bios that I haven't published....
Have a wonderful Shabbat!
Love,
Eemah
Robert Yerachmial Strausberg sent the following article...and the one after that was sent by Max Gendelman (Barry and Joel's dad)
THINK AGAIN: Almost the last of his generation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jonathan Rosenblum October, 25 2001
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(October 25) The eulogies for assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi last week provide a fair measure of the dramatic ways in which Israel has changed in recent decades.
Ze'evi, an advocate of removing Palestinian refugees from the squalid camps in which they have languished for 53 years and resettling them in one of the oil-rich and sparsely populated Arab states, was considered an extremist in Israeli politics. Thus I turned on the radio after the assassination expecting to hear condemnations of the deed and formulaic, dry praises for the deceased.
Instead I was shocked by the passion with which even Knesset members at the other extreme of the political spectrum, including a number of Arab Knesset members, spoke of a lost friend.
Opposition leader Yossi Sarid of Meretz described himself as "devastated," and looked it.
Politicians who wear their egos on their sleeve and spend their lives in ceaseless self-promotion could at least respect a man of unbending principle, who was accused of many things but never of opportunism.
Ze'evi viewed people as more than the sum of their political opinions. That attitude is increasingly rare in Israel today, as society grows more tribalized, and fewer Israelis associate with others who differ from them politically or religiously. The society in which Ze'evi grew to manhood was hardly one free of bitter ideological disputes.Remember the Altalena.
Yet members of that generation also had something that bound them together: They were building a nation. With no such sense of a common task today - only a shared dread of what the future may bring - the Jews of modern Israel feel less and less bound to one another.
That generation still viewed themselves as Jews, albeit Jews of a new type. Ze'evi's ability to avoid pigeonholing people according to whether they agreed with him or not was, in part, an outgrowth of his belief in a common bond between all Jews.
The Jewish People - it history, its destiny, its Land - meant something to him. But not just in the abstract. Each individual manifestation of our collective identity, each individual Jew, was valued. The trademark dog-tag with the names of Israel's MIAs that he always wore was an expression of that concern.
Though not religiously observant, Ze'evi identified too greatly with Jewish history not to have a high regard for the religious beliefs that sustained the Jewish people throughout that history. At a low point in his public life, he began putting on tefillin to "come closer to God," and continued doing so for the rest of his life.
As a boy, Ze'evi's father taught him to live every day according to the Hebrew acronym adashah, which stands for anava (humility), deveikut (devotion), simchah (joy) and hitlahavut (enthusiasm).
Each term, of course, is a standard element of the Chassidic approach to Divine service. In his deep affection for Jewish tradition, Ze'evi was also an increasing rarity in modern Israel.
Above all, Ze'evi loved the Land of Israel. He wrote or edited over 90 books, many dealing with the Land - its history, its battles, its flora and fauna. Prime Minister Sharon eulogized his friend and comrade of over 50 years as the Land's "greatest lover - he who walked its paths, who found shelter in its crevices, who examined its shards, knew its stones, knew its thorns and citadels, whose sweat and tears it absorbed."
Ze'evi's love of the Land of Israel thus drew poetry from one not generally known for his eloquence: "Today, we are bringing to the earth one who knew its history better than any of us, who was perfumed by its flowers and scratched by its briars, who flattened its weeds with his footsteps and called its bounty and fruits by name, and loved them."
One had to wonder, listening to the eulogies, whether Ze'evi was not just Eretz Yisrael's greatest lover but its last.
Love of the Land was a staple of Zionism. But today paeans to the beauty of the Land are likely to elicit bemused smiles. There is something hopelessly quaint and out-of-date about lovesongs written to the soil.
Even in the generation after Ze'evi's, many still felt an emotional connection to the Land. Yonatan Netanyahu loved the solo navigational training in the army that gave him the chance "to feel the place, the soil, the mountains and valleys of [our Land]."
More than 25 years ago, I hitchhiked around Northern Israel with a young Israeli my age. He knew each kibbutz, waterfall and army base, and he was typical of his generation.
That would not be true today. Hikes throughout the Land were largely a thing of the past, even before we grew too afraid to walk anywhere not protected by electrified security fences. Too many young Israelis know more of the geography of the Far East than of their native land.
Not so long ago, students in an elite Tel Aviv hich school could not even tell a TV reporter how the Golan Heights came into Israeli hands. Most had probably never been to the Golan, and many have never even been to Jerusalem or the Western Wall.
Yossi Beilin has already said that the Zionist movement made a big mistake by not taking Uganda, and too few young Israelis know why it did not.
Only among the settlers does the old Zionist love of the Land remain strong. Even those who view the whole settlement enterprise as a touch fanatical, and who find the settlers' willingness to place themselves and their loved ones in constant peril incomprehensible, must acknowledge a tremendous debt to the settlers.
Their passion keeps the flame burning of Jewish millennial yearning for the Land. They remind all of us that there was a reason the Zionist movement rejected the Uganda Plan, and that not just any piece of real estate would suffice for the renewed national existence of the Jewish people.
Yet without some historical memory, some attachment to this place, our young will continue rushing in ever greater numbers to Los Angeles, Miami, or some island in the New Hebrides.
Rehavam Ze'evi will be missed as one of the last links to a generation that still lived with Jewish history and sought to actualize it once again in our ancient homeland.
amechad@bezeqint.net.il
This is a little long, but I thought worth sending along, hope you agree.
The U.K.'s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Speech, Sept 23, 2001
Israel Solidarity Rally, Drury Lane Theatre, London 23 September 2001
Chief Rabbi Professor Jonathan Sacks
Of the 6000 languages spoken in the world today, only one is truly
universal: the language of tears. And that is the language we speak
today.
For a year we've shared tears with the people of Israel, who've suffered
the almost unimaginable number of more than 7000 terrorist attacks. That
is one an hour, every hour of every day for almost a year. In their wake,
they've left thousands injured and more than 170 dead. And now we share tears with the people of America, who have suffered the
worst single peacetime act of terror they and we have ever known. And we
say to them, your grief is ours. We feel it in our very bones.
Ribbono shel olam [Lord of the Universe]: you know we never sought this.
Almost three thousand years ago your prophets were the first people in
all of history to speak of peace as an ideal.
There wasn't one prayer we prayed for a hundred generations that didn't
end ith a prayer for peace.
And today, we heard the father of a murdered son, and the brothers and
sisters of Israeli soldiers missing in action - people whose lives have
been shattered by grief - and in all they said, there was not one word
of anger or hate or desire for revenge; instead, just a deep humanity and
a desire for peace.
Ribbono shel olam, this is your people, and I am humbly proud to belong
to it.
And when your children, ravaged by the Holocaust, came together to
rebuild their life as a nation in Your holy land, all they ever sought
was to live at peace with their neighbours.
On the very day the state of Israel was born, attacked on every one of
its borders, David Ben Gurion said - it's there for all time in the
declaration of independence - "we extend our hand to all neighbouring
states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness."
And the offer was rejected, as it has been rejected so many times since.
Eight years ago the late Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yassar Arafat
before the cameras of the world, and Israel and the Palestinians bound
themselves to engage in negotiations, renouncing all violence and
terror. Yitzhak Rabin gave his life for that ideal.
Another Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, offered more for the sake of peace
than anyone dreamt, anyone expected, anyone thought possible. And at
that very moment, when they were being offered more than they could
realistically have hoped, the Palestinians broke the Oslo accords, and
began a campaign of terror, designed to undermine the very existence of a Jewish home. It brought bloodshed to the streets, the marketplaces, the restaurants, of Israel. But it did more than that. It became a campaign of vilification directed to the press and television screens of the world that I never
dreamed I would see in my lifetime.
It culminated in a United Nations conference in Durban, a conference
convened to fight racism, which became instead a platform for a new and
virulent racism, resurrecting every evil image and myth of a thousand
years of anti-semitism. There, under the unprotesting eyes of the
nations of the world, the Jews of Israel were accused of racism,
apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity. There was holocaust denial, not from crazed individuals but from official government
spokesmen.
Thousands of leaflets were distributed with passages adapted from the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion and cartoons from Der Sturmer. And this
at an international conference against racism?
Is this what the United Nations has become? Is this what humanity has
learned from the Holocaust? That Jews should still face the hate about
which the world once said, "Never again"? That we should still have to
defend our the right to exist? That Jews should still be threatened,
endangered, held hostage, murdered for the mere fact that they are Jews
and then be blamed for it as well? Ribbono shel olam - is that what your
world has become?
When the history of the 20th century comes to be written, it will tell a
simple story: of how fascism came and went; how Soviet communism came
and went; and how anti-semitism came and stayed. Al elah ani bochiyah.
For these things, I weep.
And within a week of the hijacking of the United Nations came the
hijacking of four planes in the United States - as if to remind us what
no one should ever have forgotten: that hatred knows no boundaries. It
spreads like fire, and if it is not extinguished at the outset it blazes
beyond control.
And yet even then, unbelievably, we heard voice after voice blaming
Israel, as if all the evils of the world have one source: us, we who
have striven for peace, for blessing and for life. Friends, let me say it
clearly and unequivocally. There is only one connection between the
attacks on Israel and the United States. It has nothing to do with Israel's
relations with the Palestinians. It has nothing to do with American
foreign policy.
It is that Israel and the United States are free, open, liberal,
democratic societies, and therefore constitute the ultimate threat to
those who seek to create closed, repressive, autocratic and totalitarian societies- with no rule of law, no free press, no independent judiciary, no permitted dissent, and no minority rights.
Imagine this, that those journalists who have blamed Israel in the past
weeks were forced to leave Britain. Where would they choose to live? In
Afghanistan, under the Taleban? In Gaza under the Palestinian authority?
In Iraq under Saddam Hussein? In Iran or Libya or Syria or any other of
a dozen countries we could name? Or in Tel Aviv in the Israel they
condemn, where you can live as a Christian, pray as a Muslim, even
criticize the government, without being imprisoned, mutilated or quietly assassinated.
Or ask this: who ever offered the Palestinians a future? The Jordanians,
who threw them out of Jordan? The Lebanese, who threw them out of
Lebanon?
The Syrians, who threw them out of Tripoli? Or all those other friends
and neighbours who used them ruthlessly, exploited them and gave them
hate instead of hope, and guns instead of food? The only nation to offer the
Palestinians a future has been Israel. And for this Israel stands
condemned.
Friends, there are certain condemnations that are badges of honour. And
if today in certain minds Israel is linked with the United States - let
that too be a badge of honour. Because it was the United States that,
like Israel, was created to be a home for refugees; the United States like
Israel that was built on freedom and respect for human life; the United
States like Israel that out of desolation made prosperity; the United
States like Israel that sought to share its blessings with others.
If these things are condemned, then let us too be condemned; but let us
never stand with those who fear freedom, and kill those with whom they
disagree.
A few days ago, we sat in shul on Rosh Hashanah. What did we read about
when we read from the Torah and the prophets on that holy of holies of
Jewish time? We didn't read about war or power or conquest. We read
about Sarah and the gift of a child. We read about Hannah and her prayer
for a child.
We read about Rachel, weeping for her missing children. I cannot
tell you how moving I find it that this is the greatest Jewish dream -
just that: to bring children into the world, and give them a place of
safety,a home; and teach them the songs and stories of our people; and see them grow and write their own chapter in our story; and make our ancient faith
young again.
And in the end that simple love of life and of children gave us the
strength to outlive every empire built on war and power and violence; and
when nations learn to love their children more than they hate their
neighbours, we will have peace.
And so I say to the enemies of freedom: Children deserve better than to
be taught to hate those with whom they must one day learn to live. Children
deserve better than to be taught to win their place in heaven by
committing suicide in the act of killing others. Every child deserves a
future. In the name of all you hold holy, give your children hope. Teach
them to live, not die.
And as we stand today, with the people of Israel, with the people of the
United States and Britain, and with, I believe, the majority of Muslims
around the world, I want every one of us to leave this place with our
heads held high.
Let us say to the world: we will not answer hate with hate;
nor will we respond to terror with fear.
Let us say to our enemies: We do not seek our freedom at the cost of
yours; therefore do not seek yours at the cost of ours.
From this day forth, and for as long as it takes, let us
pray for peace, work for peace, and yes, if necessary, fight for peace,
until the children of the world, regardless of their race or faith, can
grow up without hate and without fear: loving the life that is theirs,
respecting the life that is their neighbours'. "See," said Moses, "I
have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
Therefore choose life."
That is now the choice that faces the world. Ribbono shel olam, give
every oneof us the strength to defeat the forces of death and, at last,
build a world that honours life.
